Americans Not At Home Downtown Poll Reflects Optimism Except About Inner City

May 11, 1986|By Geri Throne of The Sentinel Staff

Americans feel good about their cities, but most still don't want to live downtown.

That's what emerges from a national opinion survey done by the Gallup Organization for the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit land use and research group marking its 50th anniversary at Walt Disney World this weekend.

A large majority of 1,008 adults polled nationwide own their own homes, expect little neighborhood decline in the next decade, foresee national economic growth in the next 25 years and expect someone to be living in their houses a half-century from now.

Optimism about the future of cities peppers the poll results.

Of those surveyed, 85 percent said they believe a good job is being done to improve the city; more than two-thirds rated mass transit highly; and 82 percent say their community will stay the same or improve in the next decade. A considerable number of adults, however, still have a bad taste about some aspects of urban life, including living downtown, the poll shows.

More than 8 in 10 surveyed said they would not want to move to the downtown nearest them, 75 percent said traffic and parking aredifficult, and 56 percent said suburban shopping malls offer a better variety of retail outlets than the central city.

Young and single adults polled were more inclined to consider moving downtown than their older and married counterparts. Suburbanites rated their neighborhoods more highly than did residents of urban or rural areas.

Although most of those surveyed supported government subsidies for mass transit, highway construction, low-income housing and wilderness preservation, a smaller percentage supported tax increases to pay for the subsidies. Most said local taxes are too high.

The survey results were a pat on the back for the institute, which counts many developers and public officials among its 10,000 members.

Eighty percent of those surveyed said developers have helped improve their communities. Of the Southerners interviewed, 28 percent held that view.

More than 6 in 10 adults indicated developers could do a better job if fewer government regulations existed. Thirty percent of Southerners polled said that is true.

Fifty-one percent said the zoning boards and institutions that govern community development ''know what is best'' and are protecting the interests of local citizens, but 39 percent said the boards are ''out of touch'' with what the people want and they hinder progress.

Overall, the tone of the poll results was upbeat.

Rating their own housing, 81 percent said it was excellent or good and 75 percent believed it would still be habitable in 50 years. Rating their own communities, most said they would stay the same or get better in the next 10 years.

Southerners were far more inclined to believe their communities will improve than Easterners, Midwesterners or Westerners.

Along with the national sample, the Gallup Organization polled just more than 100 opinion leaders, including elected and appointed officials, authors, land-use experts, developers, architects, consultants and institute members.

In contrast, 57 percent of this group said it would consider living downtown. Only 48 percent say taxes are too high. The Gallup sample was more optimistic about U.S. economic growth than the general public.